When her eccentric aunt passes away, no-nonsense accountant Clare Cermac inherits more than just a small fortune. She receives the gift of communicating with ghosts. While Clare may not believe in spirits, it’s hard to overlook the shadowy talking dog appearing on her bed or spectral cowboys tipping their hats to her in the streets of Denver. And when she locks eyes with sexy—and living—Zach Slade, there’s certainly no ignoring him either.

A former deputy sheriff, Zach is leaving a painful past behind in Montana for a new life in Denver as a private investigator, a job that has him crossing paths with beautiful Clare. Not that she minds. After the restless ghost of a Wild West gunman demands her assistance, Clare finds herself needing Zach more and more—and not just for help.

Quick & Dirty: Straight-laced Clare has to come to terms with the fact that she can now see ghosts and keep her fingers crossed that her new love interest doesn’t think she’s completely nuts when he finds out. While the premise was interesting, the book as a whole didn’t end up working for me.

Opening Sentence: The minute he walked through that door, Zach Slade’s career, the one he loved, was over.

Excerpt:No

The Review:

The synopsis for this book had me very interested in reading it. Unfortunately, I ended up being largely disappointed. I often found myself coming up with excuses not to read, and that is never a good thing.

Clare’s life has certainly taken a turn for the unexpected. First, her aunt dies, leaving the majority of her fortune and estate to Clare. Suddenly a millionaire, Clare has to decide what direction her life should take. Then the ghost of her aunt’s dog shows up, telling her that she’s inherited her aunt’s gift for seeing the dead, and that she needs to take on the responsibility of helping ghosts find peace. As any person would do, Clare immediately makes an appointment with a therapist. Soon though, she begins to find it harder and harder to ignore the fact that something supernatural is certainly happening to her.

Zach Slade is a man with a chip on his shoulder, having recently retired as a police officer due to an injury suffered in the line of duty. Now back in Colorado, he’s trying to start his life over. When he runs into Clare one day, he feels his life is finally starting to look up. Little does he know that Clare is going to make him question what is real and what’s not. Will he be able to accept her newfound gift, or will he write her off as crazy?

As often is the case with books I don’t end up liking, I had a very hard time connecting to either Zach or Clare. Zach is incredibly bitter over the injury he suffered, and it makes him very hard to like. I can understand being upset at having your career derailed, but he’s had time for his leg to heal, and he needs to accept his life as it is now. His constant ruminating about it becomes very annoying as the book goes on. As for Clare, I never really got a good feel for her character. Her constant denial of what’s happening to her gets old, and it continues even after she accepts that she really is seeing ghosts. Not having a character to root for makes the plot drag on.

On the subject of Clare and Zach, I also had a hard time believing in their connection as a couple. It all just happens so fast. I’m much more a fan of the slow build up of chemistry, so I have a harder time when the hero and heroine fall into bed together when they barely know each other. I felt like I was constantly being told how attracted they are to each other, rather than their actions showing how they felt about each other.

All in all, I just didn’t end up liking this story very much. The plot dragged, I didn’t like the characters, and the romance fell flat. It made it very hard for me to make it through to the end. As much as I don’t usually like quitting a series after just one book, I’m not sure that I can muster up the will to read book 2 whenever it comes out.

Notable Scene:

“Let’s check out the box.”

Clare went to the table, opened the sack, and took out the box. Frowning, she stood directly under the light and studied it, tilted her head, then pushed down near the end of one side.

Nothing happened. “I think it’s supposed to be like a teeter-totter,” she said. “But it’s stuck. Maybe I should get some wood oil or something.”

“Maybe I could try?” Zach held out his hand.

She walked over and gave it to him. “That’s the top, and the panel that should move. I had a puzzle box when I was a kid, and you slid a couple of pieces of wood to open it, so that’s how I thought this one opened.”

Something was a little off here that Zach couldn’t put his finger on. “But now you think it needs to be pushed.”

“Yes,” she said in a stifled voice, rubbing goose bumps on her arms.

He reached out and put his arm around her waist, tugged her to stand beside him. With her came a nice trickle of cool air that seemed to swirl around his foot. Holding one end of the box, he pressed down with his thumb, felt a little give. He pushed harder, keeping the pressure steady. With an odd creak the box opened.